Beasts of the Southern Wild

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  • Opened June 29, 2012 
  • 1 hr 33 min
  • PG-13 | Child Imperilment, Brief Sensuality, Language, Some Disturbing Images and Thematic Material
  • Parents: Common Sense Media says OK for kids 14+. More on child suitability

  • Six-year-old Hushpuppy (Quvenzhané Wallis) lives with her father, Wink (Dwight Henry), in a remote Delta community. Wink is a stern taskmaster, but he is preparing his young daughter for the end of the world. When Wink falls mysteriously ill, nature seems to fall ill with him. Temperatures rise, the ice caps melt and fearsome prehistoric beasts called aurochs run loose. Rising waters threaten to engulf their community, sending Hushpuppy in search of her long-lost mother. Full synopsis

  • Cast: Quvenzhané Wallis, Dwight Henry, Lowell Landes, Levy Easterly
  • Director: Benh Zeitlin
  • Genres: Drama

What's the Buzz?

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Fans say Go
2,678 fans
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Must Go!
Critics say Must Go!
86 out of 100
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Fan Reviews

Must Go!
beautiful

by baa6

I couldn't speak at the end of this movie, I was so choked up with emotion, so overwhelmed by this incredible experience. I'm not sure what it was about the film, certainly had something to do with...

No
Pointless rubbish...LITERALLY!

by Nicknb

This is a critic's movie. If you regularly agree with the critics and like 'way out there, but not much there' movies, then this pointless indulgence into filth, alcoholism, and fantasy will delight...

Must Go!
Astoundingly Beautiful

by cksanders

Living in New Orleans for 35 years, and growing up in Quezervhane' Wallis's hometown, I expected a film with bad accents and others' concepts of what people from "down the bayou" are like. Never was...

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Critic Reviews

100
Boston Globe
| Ty Burr

She's (Hushpuppy) trying to make sense of this world, and the movie, pitched between realism and fable, is the story of how she finally does. That balance is the key to the movie's magic. Read full review

100
Wall Street Journal
| Joe Morgenstern

There's no trace of calculation, only artistic ambitions and hopes that have come to fruition in the year's finest film thus far. Read full review

100
The Hollywood Reporter
| Todd McCarthy

It's very much an art piece, to be sure, but it feels like a genuine one that, while meditated, speaks fluently and truly for the place, people and culture it so indelibly depicts. Read full review

100
Philadelphia Inquirer
| Steven Rea

Beasts of the Southern Wild transports us to places that are peculiar and dangerous and magical, and makes us feel weirdly at home. Read full review

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Quvenzhane Wallis as Hushpuppy and Dwight Henry as Wink in "Beasts of the Southern Wild."